It's education, stupid.

But in case you missed it, the Empire PageÂ has a new poll out on the top issues identified by voters as most pressing in 2006 for the Legislature andÂ governor to address. In the phone poll of 631 registered voters, conducted by Siena Research Institute, nearly a third picked “funding public education,” followed much further down by “the high cost of taxes” (17%) andÂ “reducing Medicaid costs” (16 percent). Jobs, energy costs, and controlling the cost of public pensions rounded it out.

Five percent didn’tÂ know or had no opinion. The poll had a margin of error of 3.9 percentage points.